The Cry of Nature; or, An Appeal to Mercy and to Justice, on Behalf of the Persecuted Animals

The Cry of Nature; or, An Appeal to Mercy and to Justice, on Behalf of the Persecuted Animals

First edition title page
Author	John Oswald
Illustrator	James Gillray (frontispiece)
Language	English
Subject	Vegetarianism, animal ethics
Genre	Philosophical treatise
Publisher	J. Johnson
Publication date	1791
Publication place	Kingdom of Great Britain
Media type	Print
Pages	156
OCLC	65318929
Text	The Cry of Nature; or, An Appeal to Mercy and to Justice, on Behalf of the Persecuted Animals at Wikisource

The Cry of Nature; or, An Appeal to Mercy and to Justice, on Behalf of the Persecuted Animals is a 1791 philosophical treatise by Scottish writer and revolutionary John Oswald. The work advocates vegetarianism and ethical concern for animals, combining Enlightenment reasoning with emotional and moral appeals. Written partly as a personal justification of Oswald's lifestyle, it presents historical, religious, physiological, and philosophical arguments against practices such as meat-eating, hunting, vivisection, and animal sacrifice. Central to the treatise is the idea that animals are moral subjects capable of suffering and deserving of compassion. Oswald rejects human dominion over animals and calls for a return to a simpler, nonviolent way of life grounded in justice, health, and empathy.

Background

John Oswald (c. 1760–1793) was a Scottish poet, soldier, political journalist, and revolutionary active in both Britain and France. After serving in the British Army in India, he adopted vegetarianism and developed critiques of colonialism and social hierarchy. He later became involved in radical political journalism in London and moved to Paris in the early 1790s, where he joined the Jacobin Club, participated in the Cercle Social. Oswald proposed a universal democratic republic grounded in direct participation and equality, and he helped organise a regiment of volunteer pikemen during the French Revolution. He was killed in 1793 during military action in the Vendée.

Oswald's exposure to Hindu vegetarian customs while serving in India significantly shaped his moral perspective and informed the arguments he would later present in his 1791 treatise, The Cry of Nature.

Summary

Frontispiece of The Cry of Nature. Caption reads: "The butcher's knife hath laid low the delight of a fond dam, & the darling of Nature is now stretched in gore upon the ground."

Oswald argues that humans are not naturally carnivorous and that meat-eating is a corruption introduced by custom, priestcraft, and false theology. He maintains that killing animals desensitises people to cruelty and fosters violence. He suggests that if individuals had to personally witness or perform the killing of animals, far fewer would choose to eat meat; however, the division of labour enables people to consume animal products while remaining detached from the ethical implications. Oswald claims that social conditioning dulls natural empathetic responses, allowing cruelty to persist unchallenged. He defends the capacity of animals to feel and express emotions, citing their affection, intelligence, grief, and social behaviour, and asserts that animals were not given to humans for domination, but as objects of compassion, with all beings sharing a common origin under one benevolent cause.

He contrasts Western practices with those of Hindustan, praising Hindu religion and legislation for protecting animals and opposing violence. He states that Hindus see animals as kin, deserving of care, and argues that their mythology and ethics promote mercy. He also praises ancient traditions that avoided bloodshed, including the Pythagoreans and early Christians who abstained from animal flesh.

Oswald supports his arguments with numerous citations. He quotes Juvenal, Virgil, Ovid, Homer, Shakespeare, and Thomson to invoke poetic sympathy with animals. He draws extensively on Porphyry's De Abstinentia, referencing it to support moral arguments for abstaining from flesh. He cites St. Augustine's De moribus Manichaeorum and De quantitate animae critically, particularly on the denial of reason and moral status to animals. He references Plutarch, Epicurus, and classical legislation, as well as laws attributed to Triptolemus and practices in ancient Greece. Hindu and Buddhist religious views are cited in praise of their nonviolent ethics. Biblical texts are quoted both favourably (e.g. Genesis 1:29) and critically (e.g. Genesis 9) in relation to dietary teachings.

Oswald also refers to modern sources, including physicians George Cheyne and John Arbuthnot, to argue that animal food is unhealthy, putrefactive, and physiologically unsuited to the human constitution. He draws from travel accounts to describe the customs of cultures such as the Guanches, Tartars, and Native Americans, especially where they show compassion or ritual respect for animals.

The book defends the view that humanity's original state was one of peace, agriculture, and vegetarian living. It presents a decline narrative, in which curiosity, scientific pride, and civilisation led to moral decay, bloodshed, and exploitation of animals. Oswald concludes with an emotional appeal for readers to rediscover their innate sympathy, to abandon cruel customs, and to extend moral concern to all sentient beings.

Analysis

Aaron Garrett describes The Cry of Nature as a sweeping critique of meat-eating, vivisection, and the scientific and cultural violence inflicted on animals. He explains that Oswald opposes human cruelty and the belief in human superiority, framing them as symptoms of a deeper historical estrangement from both nature and the self. According to Garrett, Oswald's argument draws on a radicalised Rousseauian narrative in which humans originally lived peacefully with animals but became alienated through religious doctrines, custom, and the distancing of violence via delegated killing. He contrasts these developments with non-Western cultures such as those in India, China, and Tibet, which Oswald views as treating animals as respected members of society.

In The Oxford Handbook of Food Ethics, John Grey and Aaron Garrett interpret the treatise as a synthesis of revolutionary Rousseauian politics and philosophical vegetarianism, influenced by both Western and non-Western thought. While drawing on Rousseau's critique of commercial society, Oswald was also deeply shaped by Indian vegetarianism and religious-philosophical sources including Porphyry, Buddhist and Hindu texts, and the Koran. According to Grey and Garrett, Oswald's central argument is that eating meat and conducting animal experiments estrange humans from their natural sentiments, particularly pity. He contends that the concealment of animal slaughter enables moral detachment and sustains systems of cruelty. By rejecting pity and embracing consumption, humans undermine their own moral and political integrity. Oswald advocated vegetarianism not only as an ethical response to animal suffering but also as a foundation for a more egalitarian and compassionate democratic society.

Legacy

The anonymous publication ''Remarks on Cruelty to Animals'' (printed by G. Nicholson in 1795), presents a passionate case for vegetarianism, drawing extensively on The Cry of Nature and a wide array of historical, religious, and scientific sources. The author condemns meat-eating as unnatural, unhealthy, and morally degrading, arguing that the act of killing animals suppresses human compassion and estranges people from their moral instincts. Citing figures such as Porphyry, George Cheyne, Buffon, and the Qur'an, the text frames vegetarianism as a return to a more peaceful and virtuous way of life. It criticises the concealment of animal slaughter and asserts that witnessing animal suffering would discourage consumption. Emphasising both ethical and medical concerns, the tract portrays vegetarianism as promoting health, longevity, and clarity of mind.

In The Cry of Nature: Art and the Making of Animal Rights (2013), Stephen F. Eisenman uses the concept of the "cry of nature"—drawn from John Oswald's 1791 treatise—as a central theme in exploring how visual art has shaped ideas about animals. According to Eisenman, Oswald's work broke with earlier animal advocacy by rejecting human dominion and calling for a reversal of the species hierarchy, urging that animals be treated as moral subjects. Eisenman traces this idea through artworks from the eighteenth century onward that depict animal suffering and challenge anthropocentric views, contrasting them with what he calls the "pathos formula", where violence is aestheticised. He presents the "cry of nature" as a recurring artistic and ethical motif that questions the treatment and moral status of nonhuman animals.

The book is considered one of the first major works to emerge from eighteenth-century opposition to vivisection and contributed to the foundations of modern vegetarian and humanist thought.

Publication history

The Cry of Nature was first printed in London in 1791 by J. Johnson. It was later reprinted Aaron Garrett's Rights and Souls in the Eighteenth Century.

A new edition, edited by John Hribal with a preface by Peter Linebaugh, was published in 2000 by the Edwin Mellen Press.

External links

• The Cry of Nature at Google Books
• The Cry of Nature at the Internet Archive
• The Cry of Nature at Gallica